Canada, Africa Rank Low, High on Kroll Study of Fraud

Canada is least prone to business
fraud while the nations of sub-Saharan Africa, India and China
are some of the world’s most risky, according to an
international risk management firm survey.

Seventy-seven percent of the companies in the study doing
business in sub-Saharan African countries experienced some form
of fraud, theft or corruption, down from 85 percent last year,
according to a 64-page report released today by Kroll Advisory
Solutions, a unit of Falls Church, Virginia-based Altegrity Inc.

Just 47 percent of responding Canadian firms reported those
difficulties, according to the Kroll report, which surveyed more
than 830 executives in 10 different industries worldwide.

“Canada is a relatively easy place to do business,” Kroll
Chief Executive Officer Tom Hartley said in a phone interview.
“The rules apply.”

“That is not true in a lot of markets,” he added.

This is the sixth year Kroll has authorized the survey,
which is conducted by the London-based Economist Intelligence
Unit.

The study examined crimes including theft of physical
assets, intellectual property, corruption, bribery, financial
fraud and other wrongdoing in the Americas, Europe, Asia and
Africa. Industries examined included finance, retail, health
care and pharmaceuticals, travel, construction, consumer goods
and technology, which includes media and telecommunications.

Russia finished on par with the global survey average of 61
percent of companies reporting some incidence of fraud and
corruption. As in the U.S., 26 percent of businesses there
claimed some form of information theft.

Sixty-eight percent of Indian respondents reported some
prevalence of fraud, compared with 65 percent in China and
Indonesia.

Fraud and theft in China fell 19 percent from last year,
when 84 percent of respondents reported they were affected by
wrongdoing.

“We were a bit surprised to fee it drop to that degree,”
Hartley said, explaining that the results did not correspond
with Kroll’s business experience there.

Global concern about fraud and theft is actually declining
faster than the crimes themselves, Hartley said. “When you’re
hit by a fraud, you’re immediately concerned,” he said, after
which businesses will spend money to defend against that threat
and move on.

“They get immediately complacent.” Hartley said. “You
are more likely than not to be hit by fraud pretty much wherever
you are in the world. Except Canada.”